US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu is coming under heavy criticism for the Solyndra scandal. (Getty Images)

(Newser)
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The ugly tanking of government-funded solar-energy company Solyndra has many people questioning whether Energy Secretary Steven Chu can handle the job, reports Politico. "Just because you are a Nobel Prize-winning physicist doesn't mean you'd be a good orthopedic surgeon," criticized a Bush-era Energy Department official. "They're different skill sets."

The White House publicly supported Chu on Friday, but criticism is growing that Chu's team overemphasizes science over policy and politics. "Impressive credentials, but sadly miscast for the rough and tumble, oft unforgiving world of oil and energy markets and its cast of malign actors," writes author Raymond Learsy on the Huffington Post. "The great irony, the big critique (of Solyndra) is the suggestion of too much politics and political influence, when in fact the realities on this might be exactly the opposite, that there was too much science and too little intuition," an anonymous environmentalist tells Politico.

The Federally subsidized “Green Energy” is so full of bullshit it is amazing. On paper it is a loser every time unless it is subsidized by at least 25% from the government. Everything should be able to stand on its own, not supported by our tax dollars.

Mersault

Oct 2, 2011 10:37 AM CDT

"Too much science"? Is that what we call it when bureaucratic apparatchiks hand out taxpayers' money to their friends? Steven Chu is stepping forth as the "fall guy" in the Solyndra debacle to protect his corrupt masters from charges of favoritism, nepotism, and crony capitalism. It's no different from the Mafia.

Snoozer

Oct 2, 2011 7:49 AM CDT

"Too much science" will NEVER be a problem if righty gets his ignorant ass back in the White House.